WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now +2% above last year and now +4% above the average for this point the past four years ($5.158 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $15.0 […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #48 is on pace to exceed the multi-year average for this weekend by 33% — the fourth weekend in a row 20% or more above the comparable weekend average.  All credit goes to strong holdovers Breaking Dawn Part 2, Skyfall, Lincoln, and even Life of Pi and Rise of the […]

> Real Steel is opening at forecast — at a very decent level, but will it be enough to cover the big visual effects costs and all the above-the-line talent expenses?  More on that in Box Office Footnotes.  In second place, The Ides of March missed its rather moderate forecast.  It will need a shelf’s […]

  CARS 2 – Watch It At Home:  Pixar Shifts Into Second Gear CARS 2 is preceded by a short subject, the first in what’s intended as a series called Toy Story Toons.  Entitled Hawaiian Vacation, it features all the familiar characters and voices, runs about 10 minutes, and effortlessly recaptures the joy, wit and […]

Weekend #16 of 2015 is looking like $119 million for the top 12 films this weekend, right in line with the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 3,600 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 from Sony should average $6,900 per theater for the […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. In the worldwide studio rankings for 2013 to date, only moderate changes for each studio.  The biggest gainer this week was Paramount, which released a film from its tiny slate: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. However, it shows just how slow the box office environment is right now when a $93 million weekly gain is tops among […]

  Watch it at home.   The deadliest weapon unleashed in BATTLE LOS ANGELES is its barrage of war-movie cliches. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but there’s this rag-tag group of Marines, led by a hard-bitten veteran, that has to go into enemy territory to rescue some civilians before friendly forces bomb the […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #36 of 2015 looks like $63 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, actually fairly good versus the norm for the dreadful Labor Day weekend (see track below). Opening at 1,960 theaters Wednesday, A Walk in the Woods from Broad Green Pictures is on track for a $7.7 million opening three-day weekend and $9.7 […]